Clueless in the Kitchen: A Cookbook for Teens

This thorough and witty culinary guide demystifies the kitchen and its contents for young adults and anyone who's found themselves in front of a full fridge exclaiming, "There's nothing to eat here!"See more details below

Overview

This thorough and witty culinary guide demystifies the kitchen and its contents for young adults and anyone who's found themselves in front of a full fridge exclaiming, "There's nothing to eat here!"

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Editorial Reviews

Resource Links - Alison Edwards

This is a great cookbook for the younger and inexperienced cook. The language used is informal and very conversational.... This book is extremely useful and a great addition to the library of the newly moved out young person.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Take a large measure of good recipes, toss with a healthy dose of humor, and you'll have this accessible cookbook. Newly independent cooks will get all the basics, from buying equipment and groceries, to food-preparation techniques, cooking meals, and defrosting the refrigerator. Recipes are grouped by food type such as "Breakfast-A Cruel Joke" and "Primarily Pasta." Icons further identify each recipe as "Cheap Eats," "Vegetarian Stuff," "Couch Potato Food," "Dinner for the Family," or "Cooking to Impress." There's something for every taste, from hamburgers and pizza to shrimp scampi and almond torte. Both English and metric measurements are given. A conversion chart, glossary, menu ideas, and a good index are included. Raab's informal and chatty style will appeal to teens, but the lack of nutritional information and the liberal use of butter will disappoint health-conscious readers. Joan Scobey's The Fannie Farmer Junior Cookbook (Little, Brown, 1993) has fewer recipes with less variety, but is somewhat easier to follow and aimed at a slightly younger audience. A welcome and useful addition for cooking collections.-Paula A. Kiely, Milwaukee Public Library, WI

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Read an Excerpt

Starting from Scratch

How you ended up with this book is not important. Maybe your parents gave it to you. Maybe you bought it for yourself. Maybe you found it in a ditch. It doesn't matter. The thing is, you have it, and now you have to use it. But how?

So this is a cookbook. You've probably already noticed that. And it's full of recipes--which is pretty much what you'd expect. These recipes are simple without being stupid. They contain no scary terminology, no really strange ingredients, no complicated procedures. They also contain (almost) no processed foods--no cake mixes, no condensed tomato soups, no frozen whipped toppings. You don't need them. Ever. Cooking from scratch is easy and cheap, and always tastes better. That's a fact.

This book is full of other stuff you need to know too. Kitchen stuff. Basic stuff that no one ever bothered to tell you. Or maybe you weren't listening. And now you're sorry, because now you want to know. Now the kitchen needs sanitizing, or now you have to cut up a chicken or have to (yikes!) convert measurements. And you certainly don't want to go crawling back to Mom, do you? You'll also find information on how to shop, where to find specialty items and how to plan a meal.

So how do you get started? Well, just start. Find something you want to cook and cook it. Go ahead--be brave. After all, cooking isn't brain surgery. It just looks like it.